Serenity Prayer

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The Serenity Prayer is the common name for an originally untitled prayer written by the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr in the 1930s or early 1940s.

1 History and text
2 Allusions to the Prayer
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History and text

Niebuhr seems to have written the prayer for use in a sermon, perhaps as early as 1934 (the date given in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 16th edn., ed. Justin Kaplan, 1992, p. 684), perhaps in the early 1940s.

Elisabeth Sifton's book The Serenity Prayer (2003) quotes this version as the authentic original:

God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

The earliest verifiable printed texts so far discovered are an approximate version (apparently quoted from memory) in a query in the "Queries and Answers" column in The New York Times Book Review, July 12, 1942, p. 23, which asks for the author of the quotation; and a reply in the same column in the issue for August 2, 1942, p. 19, where the quotation is attributed to Niebuhr and an unidentified printed text is quoted as follows:

O God and Heavenly Father,

Grant to us the serenity of mind to accept that which cannot be changed; the courage to change that which can be changed, and the wisdom to know the one from the other, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

The prayer became widely known when it was adopted in modified form by Alcoholics Anonymous; an AA magazine, The AA Grapevine, identified Niebuhr as the author (January 1950, pp. 6-7), and the AA web site continues to identify Niebuhr as the author (see External Links).

Many mythical accounts of the prayer's origin appeared after 1950. One persistent myth attributes the prayer to Friedrich Christoph Oetinger (1702-1782), but this attribution is the result of a misunderstanding of a plagiarism of the prayer by Theodor Wilhelm, an ex-Nazi professor at the University of Kiel. Wilhelm printed a German version of the prayer as his own work in his book, Wendepunkt der poltitischen Erziehung; he published the book under the pseudonym "Friedrich Oetinger" (the book did not pretend to be the work of the 18th-century Oetinger; the name was merely a pseudonym, apparently chosen because the author's wife was descended from pastors who shared the theology of the 18th-century Oetinger). Theodor Wilhelm was apparently unaware that the US Army and the USO had been distributing the prayer in Germany since the end of World War II, and later writers who were unaware that "Friedrich Oetinger" was a pseudonym (even though the book was clearly written by a 20th-century author) confused this name with the eighteenth-century Oetinger. Wilhelm apparently chose to publish under a pseudonym because his Nazi past was widely known in Germany at the time.

Other mythical claims for the authorship of the prayer (none of them supported by any evidence whatever) include one that the prayer was written by Boethius, a stoic philosopher, just before his execution in the year 525 or 526.

The prayer is reliably reported to have been in use in Alcoholics Anonymous since the early 1940s. It has also been used in Narcotics Anonymous and other Twelve-step programs. The Alcoholics Anonymous version omits some of Niebuhr's text:

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

courage to change the things I can,

and (the) wisdom to know the difference.

The story of the prayer and its misattributions is told in Elisabeth Sifton, The Serenity Prayer (2003)

Expanded versions of the prayer, written in the late 20th century, have been widely distributed (see External Links below).

[edit] Allusions to the Prayer

The back cover of the Neil Young album Re-ac-tor has the prayer in Latin: 'Deus, dona mihi serenitatem accipere res quae non possum mutare, fortitudinem mutare res quae possum, atque sapientiam differentiam cognoscere.' This is possibly a reaction to another son of his being born with cerebral palsy.
On the back cover of Whitney Houston's self-titled debut album.
In the song, "Higher Power", by Boston.
In the song, "Feel so different" (1990), by Sinéad O'Connor.
In the song, "Gotta Make It To Heaven," by 50 Cent.
In the intro, "Loving" of India Arie's third album "Testimony Vol 1 - Life And Relationship."
As a track on Goodie MOb's debut album Soul Food.
In the book, "Angels & Demons," by Dan Brown, quoted by the Camerlengo (although credited to St. Francis).
In the book, Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut.
An older printing of the AA's "Big Book" has the prayer: 'God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Thy will, not mine, be done.'
In the game World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, one of the Blood Elves' speech recordings has one elf reciting the prayer, and breaking down half way through. The Blood Elves are addicted to magic.
The Israeli Rapper Subliminal adapts the prayer into his song "Tikvah" (Hope) about the Israeli wars and terrorism.
The hardcore punk band Blood for Blood has an album named after the prayer, and the first and last tracks of the album are the serenity prayer being recited by the band's lead singer.
Olivia Newton-John's CD Stronger than Before includes a setting of the prayer, titled "Serenity".